Strung Along
by Erin T. Aardvark
Summary: The Impossibles investigate a series of mysterious disappearances, which may be linked with strange occurences at an old, abandoned, and supposedly haunted, puppet theater.
1. Prelude

_AUTHOR'S NOTE: Yet another story inspired by a computer game. This one was called "PuppetShow: Mystery of Joyville," which was developed by ERS G Studio. What can I say? Sometimes, a game is the terrific source for an idea. As always, the Impossibles and Big D belong to Hanna-Barbera. Everyone else belongs to me, though one of the characters in my story (Felicia) is named after a character from the game.

* * *

_

1766, Vienna, Austria.

Just outside of Vienna, there was a small town known as Hasenpfeffer. Several people in town were gathered at a theater at the edge of the town. Playing at the theater was a rendition of "Sleeping Beauty," done with mechanical puppets. Every show at the theater was done with puppets. The owner of the theater, known only as the Puppet Master, carved all of his puppets out of wood, and fitted some of the larger ones with gears to make them move. The people in this little town never missed any of the Puppet Master's performances. Children and adults alike visited the theater every week to see what the Puppet Master had in store for his audience. And, always seated in the front row of every performance was Felicia, the Puppet Master's sixteen-year-old daughter. She was very beautiful, with long, dark hair, and sparkling green eyes, the most beautiful girl in the village, people said. And she knew it. All the boys in town chased after her right and left. Felicia enjoyed the attention, and she loved to tease the boys, and flirt with them mercilessly. This made her terribly vain. But despite her vanity, she _did_ love her father very much, and never missed any of his performances.

One day, a fire broke out in the theater, and all but completely destroyed it. It had claimed the lives of many of the townspeople, including the Puppet Master and his daughter.

Since the death of the Puppet Master, the puppet theater (or what was left of it) closed it's doors forever. No one tried to reopen it.

Everything in the little town was quiet for the next five years, until strange things began happening. Mysteriously, girls between the ages of fourteen and twenty-one suddenly vanished. The police noticed that the girls who went missing were quite attractive. They filed an extensive search, but the missing girls were never found.

And again, things were quiet for a few years. Then, suddenly, it started happening all over again, except this time, girls between fourteen and twenty-one were disappearing all over the world. Law enforcement agencies from all over the world searched for a clue, or a trace or _some_thing that would lead them to the missing girls. But nothing ever turned up, and year after year, girls kept turning up missing under mysterious circumstances.


	2. The Mary Annette Modeling Agency

Present day, Megatropolis, USA.

It was a quiet week for crime busting, which gave the Impossibles an excuse to goof off a little. They needed a break from busting bad guys. They were over at Multi's house, watching TV, when Multi's older sister, Windy, suddenly burst through the door. She ran upstairs as fast as she could, dashed into the bathroom, and slammed the door shut.

"What in the world was _that_ all about?" Fluey asked.

"Beats me," Multi said, turning off the television. "But it's one of two things. She either broke up with another boyfriend, or she's got a date. Either way, I'll find out what she's up to by tomorrow."

Coiley and Fluey knew _exactly_ what that meant. Multi would find out what his sister was up to by breaking into her diary and reading it.

About an hour after Windy came home, she walked downstairs, wearing her pink high school homecoming dress and matching heels. The boys just stared at her, oddly.

"Wow, sis," Multi said. "You look great! Hot date tonight?"

"No," Windy said, while putting on a pair of gold earrings. "I'm going to get some photos taken."

"What for?" Coiley asked.

"This," Windy said, handing Coiley a piece of paper.

"Mary Annette Modeling Agency," Coiley said, reading the letterhead. "Dear Ms. Mills, you have been selected for this exclusive offer of becoming one of our models. Please send us a professional eight by ten photo. Once we receive your photo, we will notify you whether or not you qualify for our agency."

"I've never heard of this one," Multi said.

"I think they're a relatively new agency," Windy said. "Gotta go!"

And with that, Windy dashed out the front door. Before any of the boys could say anything, the phone rang. Multi grabbed it.

"Hello?" he said. "Oh, hi, Shawn, what's going on? You, too, huh? No, my sister got a letter from them, too. Yeah, she just left. And FG and Danalleah as well? Yeah, I guess so . . . . . well, good luck. Though I don't think you'll need it. Bye."

Multi hung up the phone, and then turned to his team mates, who were looking at him oddly.

"Shawn said she, FG, and Danalleah also got letters from this Mary Annette Modeling agency," he explained. "Same letter as Windy."

"We'd better look into this," Fluey said. "I'm getting a weird feeling about this Mary Annette set up."

Coiley and Multi agreed, and the boys went out to the Impossi-Mobile and went directly to the SSHQ building. Phyllis was sitting in front of her typewriter, as usual. Immediately, Fluey noticed a letter on her desk.

"You got a letter from this Mary Annette place, too?" he asked.

"Yeah," Phyllis said. "I've never heard of them."

"Can you look it up for us?" Multi asked. "Shawn, FG, Danalleah, and my sister also got letters from this place."

"I tried looking them up already, but I couldn't find anything," Phyllis said, shrugging. "They must be new."

"I guess so," Fluey said. "But I can't shake this feeling . . . . ."

"Something wrong?" Phyllis asked.

"No, not necessarily," Fluey shrugged. "I'm just getting this weird feeling, that's all."

Phyllis nodded, and she went back to her typewriter.

For the next few days, the Impossibles noticed there were considerably long lines in front of every single photography studio in town, and everyone in the lines were either teenage girls, or young women.

"This is really kinda weird," Fluey said.

"Every girl in town must have gotten a letter from this Mary Annette agency," Multi said.

"I don't understand it," Coiley said.

It seemed to be a mystery all right. The problem was, this really wasn't against the law, just a little odd, so there was nothing the boys could do about it.

Exactly one week later, the boys were hanging out at HQ, talking to Phyllis over the entire thing.

"I can't believe you went and sent your photo into these people," Fluey said, looking at the return address on the original envelope.

"It was for deductive purposes only," Phyllis said.

"Yeah, if you expect us to buy that, sis, then I've got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell ya cheap," Fluey replied.

"Anyway," Phyllis said, glaring at Fluey, "it explains why there's no record of the Mary Annette Modeling Agency in the US."

"Yeah, who knew they were an Austrian company?" Coiley asked. "But why send letters to every girl in America?"

"Beats me," Fluey said, shrugging.

"Hey guys!" Shawn shouted, as she, Danalleah, and FG raced into the office. "Guess what?!"

"What?" Multi asked.

"We've been picked!" Danalleah squealed. "We just got letters from the Mary Annette people, and we've been chosen to go to Austria to be their models!"

"Small world," Phyllis said, pulling an envelope out of the desk drawer. "I got picked, too."

"I wonder if every girl who they sent letters to got picked," Coiley said.

"Let's go over to my house," Multi said. "Knowing my sister, she'll probably be doing one of two things."

"What's that?" Fluey asked.

"Packing her suitcase because she was chosen, or tearing her bedroom apart because she wasn't."

The boys then went to Multi's house almost immediately. Multi's hunch had been right. They found Windy in her room, packing a suitcase.

"Going to Austria, Win?" Multi asked.

"How'd you know?" Windy asked.

"Shawn, FG, Danalleah, and Phyllis got picked as well," Multi said. "We were wondering if anyone they sent the letters to _didn't_ get picked."

"Yeah, there were quite a few that didn't make the cut for some reason or another," Windy said. "Tanya Reynolds didn't make the cut, due to crooked teeth. Ashley Samms didn't make the cut because of her frizzy hair, Elaine Greggs because she wears braces, Nancy Wilcox because she wears glasses, and Rebecca Taylor because she's overweight."

"I guess that's the modeling business for ya," Fluey said, with a shrug. "You have to be drop dead gorgeous and a toothpick."

"Not necessarily," Multi said. "They accepted my sister, didn't they?"

In response, Windy grabbed a pillow off her bed, and hurled it at her brother.

"Hey, easy, sis! I was just kidding!" Multi shouted.

And with that, the boys left, though they couldn't help but feel something wasn't right about this entire set up.


	3. Auf to Austria

It had been a week after the girls had left for Austria. The boys were cruising in the Impossi-Mobile, trying not to think about it, but they just couldn't get their minds off of this Mary Annette Modeling Agency.

"Don't you think it's kind of weird we haven't heard from the girls since we left, fellas?" Coiley asked.

"You'd think we'd at least get a postcard or something," Fluey said shrugging.

"I'm with Coiley," Multi said. "It _is_ kind of strange we haven't heard from them. Especially considering how hung up Danalleah is on you, Fluey."

"And vice versa," Coiley said, giving Fluey a knowing look. Before Fluey could respond, Coiley's guitar began beeping.

"Impossibles here, chief," Coiley said.

"I need you boys to investigate a series of disappearances," Big D said.

"What kind of disappearances, chief?" Multi asked.

"It appears that young women from all over the world have been going missing," Big D went on. "Apparently, all of the girls reported missing received letters from this Mary Annette Modeling Agency, located in Hasenpfeffer, Austria."

"Are you fellas thinking what I'm thinking?" Coiley asked.

"Yeah, man!" Fluey shouted. "We're on the case, Big D! Over and out."

Immediately, the boys closed the signal in the guitar, converted to Impossi-Jet (and in turn converted into their superhero forms), and blasted off into the air.

"Rally ho!" they shouted.

The boys arrived in Hasenpfeffer, Austria a few hours later, and looked around. It looked like the town hadn't been changed since the nineteenth century. It was like walking through a time warp. But then again, the boys knew a lot of European cities were like that. But they also noticed the town seemed to be deserted.

"I wonder where everybody is?" Multi asked. Skittles began whimpering. She didn't like this place.

"There's a hotel over there," Fluey said, pointing to an old building in the distance. "Let's check it out."

Multi and Coiley agreed. The boys, and Skittles got out of the Impossi-Mobile, and headed for the old hotel. They opened the door and looked around. It seemed pretty empty. There were cobwebs all over the place.

"They must not do much cleaning around here," Fluey said.

"Anybody home?!" Coiley called out.

"Guten tag, gentlemen," an old man said, coming out from another room. "My name is Hans Hoffsteddar. How may I help you?"

"We're looking for some information," Coiley said.

"What sort of information?" Mr. Hoffsteddar asked.

"What do you know about the Mary Annette Modeling Agency?" Fluey asked.

"I'm sorry, but I'm not quite sure what you're talking about," Mr. Hoffsteddar said, giving the boys a weird look. Immediately, Multi handed him the two letters his sister had received. Mr. Hoffsteddar read both of them, and then he re-read through them as carefully as he could.

"Oh dear . . . . . ." he said, nervously. "Not again."

"What do you mean?" Multi asked.

"Where did you get these letters?" Mr. Hoffsteddar asked.

"My older sister received them in the mail," Multi explained.

"Yeah, and so did my cousin, my half-sister, and our girlfriends," Fluey said. "Not to mention half the girls in town."

"I take it the girls who have received these letters were pretty?" Mr. Hoffsteddar asked.

"Yeah," Fluey said. "Why?"

"I'm afraid there is no such business as the Mary Annette Modeling Agency," Mr. Hoffsteddar said with a sigh. "This has been going on for over two hundred years now . . . . ."

"What has?" Coiley asked.

"Strange disappearances," Mr. Hoffsteddar said. "For over two hundred years, young women from all over the world have just mysteriously . . . . . disappeared. Everyone figures it has to do with the evil spirit of the Puppet Master."

"Puppet Master?" Fluey repeated.

"Ja," Mr. Hoffsteddar said. "You see, there's an old, abandoned puppet theater in town. It's all that's left after the great fire. But some people say it's haunted. No one dares go outside after dark in this town anymore. They're all afraid of the evil spirits."

"So . . . . . what does this have to do with with these missing girls?" Coiley asked.

"I'm not sure, but everyone thinks they're connected," Mr. Hoffsteddar said. "No one really thought the old Puppet Master was evil, though. Mein great-great grandpater was an old friend of his. He is the one that started this business. Come. I'll show you something."

Mr. Hoffsteddar led the boys to another room, and showed them a piano. Standing by the piano was a life sized doll of sorts. Skittles began sniffing at it, curiously.

"This was a gift to mein great-great grandpater from the Puppet Master," Mr. Hoffsteddar said.

"Does it work?" Multi asked.

"Ja, I'll show you," Mr. Hoffsteddar said, and he turned a large key that that was in the doll's back, winding her up. The doll began playing a tune on the piano. Startled, Skittles let out a yip, and ducked behind Multi's leg.

"Hey, that's pretty neat," Fluey said, as Mr. Hoffsteddar pulled the lever again, turning it off. Skittles cautiously walked toward it, sniffing at it again.

"You think maybe there _is_ some kind of haunting going on in this town, fellas?" Coiley asked.

"Beats the heck outta me," Fluey said, shrugging, and turned to Mr. Hoffsteddar. "Could this Puppet Master character be involved in these disappearances?"

"I wouldn't know," Mr. Hoffsteddar said. "The Puppet Master has been dead since seventeen sixty-six. The story goes a fire broke out in his theater during one of his performances. It claimed the lives of several people, which included the Puppet Master himself, and his daughter."

"And you think his ghost may be up to something?" Multi asked.

"Ja," Mr. Hoffsteddar replied. "For over two hundred years, those girls that have gone missing have never been found."

"I don't like the sound of that, fellas," Fluey said.

"I think we ought to investigate the town," Multi said.

"Suit yourself," Mr. Hoffsteddar said. "But as for me, I'd rather not get involved in this whatsoever!"

And with that, Mr. Hoffsteddar left the room.


	4. Spider Baby

Once Mr. Hoffsteddar left the room, Skittles began barking, and she ran for the piano playing puppet and began pawing at the piano. Then, she went into her pointer routine (_poing!_)

"Something about the piano, girl?" Multi asked. Skittles barked and nodded. Then she began pawing at the piano, whimpering.

"Hey, fellas, check this out!" Fluey shouted. "I just noticed there's this slot thing on the front of the piano here."

"I wonder what it's for?" Coiley asked.

"One way to find out," Multi said. He walked behind the puppet, and began winding her up. She began playing that same tune she had played when Mr. Hoffsteddar wound her up moments before. But this time, a sheet of paper started coming out of the slot in the piano. Once the doll stopped playing, Fluey grabbed the paper, and looked at it.

"Looks like sheet music," he said. "But there's only one bar, and there are only seven notes. A, E, G, D, F, C, E."

"Not much of a song there," Coiley said.

"Better hold onto it, though," Multi said, taking the paper. "You never know when something like this will come in handy."

"Yeah, man, maybe we can expand on it, and it'll be our new hit record once this is all over," Fluey said, playing the tune from the sheet music on the piano.

The boys were about to leave the room when they heard something in the lobby. They ran into the lobby, and saw a strange mechanical creature. It looked like it had the head of a baby doll, and the body of a spider!

"Frantic Frankenstein!" Coiley shouted. "What in the world _is_ that thing?!"

"I don't know, but it's giving me the mega-creeps!" Fluey shouted.

The spider baby looked around, and then ran out the door. The Impossibles followed it, but once they were out in the street, they lost sight of it.

"Yeeeccchhhh!" Fluey grimaced. "Did you guys _see_ how that thing was moving?!"

"Now I know why Windy freaks out when she sees spiders," Multi said.

"Where did it go, anyway?" Coiley asked.

Skittles began sniffing around for that weird puppet. Then she barked, and did her pointer routine again (_poing!_), pointing down the street.

"Atta girl, Skittles!" Multi shouted. "Let's get to the Impossi-Mobile!"

"Rally ho!" the boys shouted in unison and raced for the Impossi-Mobile in order to track down that spider puppet. They caught up with it at the gates of what looked like the old puppet theater Mr. Hoffsteddar was telling them about.

"There it is!" Coiley called out.

The puppet then crawled up the side of the wall and over the gate, disappearing from view. Coiley parked the Impossi-Mobile, and the boys went up to the front gate. They noticed there were two gargoyles sitting on the walls.

"And I thought that spider thing was creepy!" Fluey shouted, shuddering a little. "Those two take the cake! Eeeesh!"

"Come on, fellas," Coiley said. "We've got to get in there and get to the bottom of this puppet theater. Rally ho!"

Coiley sprang upward, and bounced over the locked gate. Multi picked up Skittles, and duplicated himself over.

"Rally ho!" he shouted.

"Rally ho ho!" Fluey shouted, converting to liquid, and effortlessly sailed over the gate and into the yard. They looked around, and saw the theater, but the windows were boarded up. There was a large, dried up fountain in the center of the yard, and it was filled with various pieces of junk.

"Looks like nobody's been here for years," Multi said.

"Nobody except _that_ thing!" Fluey shouted, pointing toward the theater. Sure enough, there was that creepy spider baby, crawling up the side of the theater. It went around toward the back, and mysteriously disappeared.

"Stay here a minute, fellas," Fluey said. "I'm gonna go find out where that thing went. Rally ho ho!"

Fluey converted into liquid, and shot toward the roof of the theater, and around back. But the spider baby had vanished.

"Do you see anything?" Coiley asked.

"No, it's gone, but I can't figure out where it went!" Fluey shouted. "We've got to get inside here and find out."

The boys walked up the front steps of the theater and found an odd looking lock on the door. It looked like a figure of a woman, and she held two scales in her hands.

"Okay . . . ." Multi said. "How do we open a lock like _this_?!"

"I'll take care of this," Fluey said. "I'll go under the door and unlock it from the other side."

"Good thinking," Coiley said.

Fluey went into a conversion and seeped underneath the door. Then he converted back into solid, and went to unlock the door, but, much to his surprise, there was no lock on the other side!

"Hey, man, like weirdsville!" he shouted.

"What's the matter?" Coiley asked from the other side of the door.

"There's no lock here on this side of the door!" Fluey shouted.

"That's strange," Multi said. "Well, you start investigating, Fluey! Coiley and I will try to find another way in!"

"Got it!" Fluey shouted. He looked around the lobby of the theater, and heard something across the room. It was that weird spider baby, and it scampered through a doorway. Quickly, Fluey followed it down a dark corridor, and lost sight of it.

"Rats, it's gone," he grumbled. "I wonder what that thing is, anyway? Other than the most disturbing puppet I have ever seen in my entire life, that is. Yeecchhh!"

Fluey continued down the corridor, until he saw a light coming from a crack in a doorway. Converting to liquid, be blasted toward the door, and went through it. He found himself on the stage of the old puppet theater. There were a couple of puppets standing around, and they appeared to be waiting for their cue. Fluey also noticed that one of the levers to raise the curtains was missing. Not that it surprised Fluey. What _did_ surprise him was that the place didn't even look like there had been much of a fire there that closed it down. There were some fire damaged items, but other than that, the place looked untouched by fire. It just looked like it was falling apart from years of neglect.

"You'd think with a fire that claimed the lives of so many people, there'd be more damage," he said. He continued walking around backstage, looking for any clues that would lead to the spider baby, but that thing had vanished, seemingly into thin air.

"This is really getting creepy," he said. "I'd better go back outside and regroup with the guys."

Fluey was about to turn to leave when he heard something backstage. It sounded like a music box. He didn't recognize the tune, so he figured it was probably a custom made box or something like that. Fluey followed the music further backstage, but he didn't find anything around, except for maybe a few old, broken marionettes, and they had all definitely seen better days. Joints were broken, limbs were missing, some of the faces were cracked, and many of them were badly burned.

"Looks like someone hasn't been taking very good care of these things," Fluey said. He bent over to pick one of the old puppets up, but before he could, something hit him in the back of the head, and hard.

_WHACK!_

Immediately, Fluey saw stars, and heard birds chirping. A second later, he fell, and hit the floor, out cold.


	5. Captive Audience

Meanwhile, Coiley, Multi, and Skittles were still waiting outside, trying to figure out how in the world they were going to get in. Skittles began whimpering, and she started pawing at the door.

"Uh oh," Multi said, glancing down at his puppy. "Looks like's Skittles' radar picked up something inside."

"I'm gonna call Fluey," Coiley said. He bounced off the porch and over the fence to the Impossi-Mobile to retrieve his guitar. He activated the TV inside of the neck and tuned in on Fluey's wrist communicator.

"Coiley to Fluey," he said. "Do you read me? Come in, Fluey!"

Coiley didn't get a response. He tried again, but only got the same results. Coiley put his guitar back in the Impossi-Mobile, bounced over the gate, and went back to Multi and Skittles.

"Fluey's not answering," he reported. "He might be in trouble."

"We've got to get in there," Multi said. "But how? I can't for the life of me figure out this lock!"

Skittles began backing up. Coiley and Multi knew what she was going to do, and Multi grabbed her before she could.

"Hold it, girl," he said. "There might be someone . . . . . or some_thing_ inside. We don't want to get their attention, and ramming the door at top speed and knocking it off it's hinges will _def_initely get someone's attention! We've got to figure out how to unlock the door!"

"I think I might have an idea," Coiley said. "This thing looks like a scale. Maybe if we can put some rocks or something on the scales, the door will unlock."

"It's worth a shot," Multi said. He and Coiley began gathering up rocks and putting them on the scales. It was about the only thing they could do. However, they kept having to take some off one, and put more on the other side until they finally managed to balance the scales evenly. And the minute they were even, the door unlocked.

"That has got to be the weirdest lock I've ever encountered," Multi said, as he opened the door. "I just hope Windy didn't notice it."

"How come?" Coiley asked.

"She might try to figure out how to use something like that to attach to her diary. Then I won't be able to break into it anymore."

Multi slowly opened the door, and he, Coiley, and Skittles walked inside the old theater. Skittles began sniffing around. Coiley looked around the lobby and made a face.

"Boy, this place is a pig sty!" he shouted.

"This place has been abandoned for two hundred years, Coiley," Multi pointed out. "What did you expect?"

"Well, whatever I was expecting, that sure isn't it! Look!"

Coiley pointed up toward the corner of the ceiling. Multi and Skittles looked and saw that weird spider baby puppet crawling down the side of the wall. Skittles barked and ran after it. The spider baby then ran outside of the theater, with Skittles hot on it's heels.

"Skittles! Wait a minute!" Multi shouted, and he and Coiley chased after the puppy.

While Multi, Coiley, and Skittles were chasing after the spider baby, Fluey was coming to his senses. His head was killing him. He looked around, and saw he was laying on a couch, in what looked like a dressing room or something along those lines. His hands were tied behind his back, his ankles were tied together, and a gag was tied over his mouth. He also noticed that somehow, his powers had been deactivated. He let out a groan upon realizing this, and looked around the room for a way to escape. He spotted a group of puppets across the room. He saw one had a hook for a hand. That was a little bizarre, but at this point, Fluey didn't care. He rolled himself off the couch, pulled himself into a sitting position, and slid across the floor until he reached the hook-handed puppet. He turned around, and rubbed the ropes binding his wrists against the hook until they broke. Once his hands were free, Fluey yanked off the gag, untied his ankles, and stood up.

"Okay," he said, massaging his wrists a bit. "It's obvious I'm still in the theater. But how'd my powers get deactivated? I'd better find my transformer and _re_-activate them before . . . . . ."

"Before what?" a feminine voice behind him asked. For some reason, it sent shivers down Fluey's spine. He turned around, cautiously, and found himself face to face with a beautiful girl, about sixteen or so. She was wearing a long, white dress with blue trim, and a blue bow in her long, dark hair, and her eyes were emerald green.

"Going somewhere?" she asked.

"Uhh, yeah, I was just leaving," Fluey said. He started running for the door, but it slammed shut suddenly, and locked.

"Leapin' lockdowns . . . . ." he said. "Trapped like a rat!"

"You can't leave yet," the girl said, coming toward him. "You just got here."

The girl smiled, and Fluey grew nervous as she approached him. He gulped, and started backing up, right against the locked door. The girl came closer, and she batted her long eyelashes at him.

"There's no need to be nervous," she said. "I don't bite. Much."

"Uhhh . . . . ." Fluey said, a little nervously, as the girl put her hands on his shoulders, and leaned against him. Then, she put one hand on the back of Fluey's head, and pushed his face toward hers until their lips met, and she kissed him passionately. Immediately, Fluey pulled away from her.

"Hey, whoa, hold it!" he shouted. "What's the big idea?!"

"You're a boy, I'm a girl," the girl said, running her fingers through Fluey's hair. "I'm just letting nature take it's course, you know."

"Yeah, well . . . . . I never kiss on the first date."

"Oh really? Well, I _do_."

The girl pulled Fluey into another passionate kiss, and Fluey pulled away from her again, this time, stepping to the side in order to escape her hold.

"Cut it out!" he shouted. "I don't even know who you are!"

"Well, I suppose introductions _are_ in order . . . . . . my name is Felicia, but you can call me all yours."

"And you can call me a cab! I'm outta here!"

Fluey made a beeline straight into another part of the room, and slammed the door shut. He pressed himself against it in order to keep this Felicia girl out.

"Open the door!" Felicia shouted, banging her fist against the door as hard as she could. "You open this door right this minute!"

"I've got to find my transformer and get out of here," Fluey said. "Better call the guys, first. I might need some back up."

With his back pressed firmly against the door, Fluey activated his wrist communicator (he was just glad that wasn't missing), and tried contacting Coiley.

"Fluey calling Coiley," he said. "Come in, Coiley!"

Unfortunately, Fluey didn't get an answer. Then he smacked his hand against his forehead.

"Rats!" he shouted. "He and Multi are probably investigating the place and are too far away from the Impossi-Mobile to hear the guitar."

By now, the banging against the door had stopped. Fluey figured Felicia had given up, so he opened the door, and looked around. No one was around, and the door to the hallway was unlocked as well. He took a glance out the door, and saw that the coast was clear. He was about to head down the corridor when he was suddenly grabbed from behind. A hand covered his mouth to keep him from yelling out.

"Whatever my little girl wants, my little girl gets," a male voice said, and he started dragging Fluey down the hallway.

Fluey had to think fast. As he was being taken down the corridor, he stomped on his captor's foot as hard as he possibly could, bit him in the hand, and jabbed his elbow into his stomach.

"_Accchhhhh_!" the man shouted, ultimately letting go of Fluey.

Fluey immediately ran down the corridor and through the door that lead to the backstage area. He ducked behind the back curtain once he heard footsteps coming his way, but it was very hard to see back there.

"Where's a flashlight when ya need one?" he asked.

Fluey walked around a little, until he heard those same footsteps on the stage. He began running again, trying to find a way out of this mess. Unfortunately, he ended up running smack dab into another mess. Since it was so dark, and he couldn't see where he was going very well, Fluey ended up running straight into a group of marionettes hanging from the ceiling. When Fluey ran into them, they all fell, and Fluey found himself tangled up in their strings.

"Oh great!" he groaned, trying to get himself untangled.

"Got ourselves in a bit of a bind, have we?" the man asked, as he came over. Fluey finally was able to get a look at this one. He was a tall man with white hair wearing an outfit straight out of the 1700's. He sort of reminded Fluey of a somewhat demented version of Gepetto from the story, "Pinocchio."

"What's going on here, anyway?!" Fluey shouted, trying to get himself untangled. "Who are you?!"

"You'll find out when the time is right, boy," the old man said. He walked over to the wall, and pulled a lever. The lever opened a trap door, and Fluey fell through it. He landed on the floor of the theater's basement hard, and ended up knocking himself out.

Back outside, Multi, Coiley, and Skittles had tracked the spider baby to the back of the old theater, and then lost it. Skittles began sniffing around, and Multi and Coiley looked at the old shed nearby.

"Check that out, Coiley," Multi said, walking toward the shed. He opened the door, and looked inside.

"It looks like someone's been painting sets for a play or something," he said. "And recently!"

"That's not possible, Multi," Coiley said. "Mr. Hoffsteddar said this theater has been abandoned for years."

Skittles began barking suddenly, and ran to the front yard, and then over to the other side of the theater. She seemed to be interested in an extremely large, overgrown bush. Once the two Impossibles caught up to her, she barked, and went into her pointer routine (_poing!_) and indicated the bush.

"I think she thinks there's something behind this bush," Coiley said.

"Well, we can't look for it now," Multi said. "I want to get back into that theater and look for Fluey.

"Right," Coiley said. "Come on, Skittles. We need you to track Fluey down."

Skittles barked, and followed her friends back into the theater.


	6. Puppetized

Skittles began sniffing around the mess in the lobby, as the boys dug through it to see if they could find anything useful.

"Find anything yet, Coiley?" Multi asked.

"No, at least nothing useful," Coiley said. "No sign of Fluey, either. Or the girls!"

Skittles continued sniffing, and then went into her pointer bit again, pointing down the dark hallway. Multi and Coiley looked down the hallway, and cringed.

"Something's down there, girl?" Multi asked. Skittles barked and nodded her head.

"I don't like the looks of this, Multi," Coiley said.

"Wait a minute, here's a lantern," Multi said, walking over to the mess in the middle of the lobby. He pulled out a match and lit it, and he, Coiley, and Skittles went down the corridor. They noticed a light coming from two of the rooms.

"How do you want to handle this, Multi?" Coiley asked. "You want to take one room and I'll take the other?"

"No," Multi replied, shaking his head. "I think we'd be better off if we stuck together on this one, Coiley. Just in case."

Coiley nodded, and he, Multi, and Skittles went into one of the rooms. They found themselves in what looked like a dressing room, filled with puppets and other items. Skittles immediately began sniffing around, and started investigating some broken ropes laying on the floor, by a puppet with a hook instead of a hand.

"Holy horrific!" Coiley shouted, once he got a look at that puppet. "You've got to be one twisted person to give a puppet a hook for a hand!"

"That's for sure," Multi said, kneeling next to his puppy for a moment. "Looks like Fluey might have been in here, but he isn't now."

"Hey, Multi, look at this," Coiley said, bouncing over to the couch. He picked up a lever of sorts from the floor. "What's this doing in here?"

"I don't know," Multi said. "Better hang onto it, Coiley. I have a feeling we might need it a little later down the road."

"Right. Come on. Let's check out that other room."

Skittles barked in agreement, and she and the two Impossibles left the dressing room, and went down the dark corridor to the doorway at the end of the hall. They found themselves on the stage of the theater. Multi spotted the mechanism that opened the curtain, but a lever was missing.

"I think I've found out where that lever we found goes," he said. He walked over to the mechanism, put the lever in place, and toyed around with the three of them, until the curtains opened, and two of the puppets on the stage began to move.

"They work pretty well for their age," Coiley commented. "You know what's kind of funny, Multi?"

"What?" Multi asked, picking up Skittles.

"This place in general. You'd think it'd have more damage done to it after a fire. I mean, there _is_ some evidence of fire damage, but not much."

"You're right. Something weird is going on around here."

Skittles began barking, and she shot out of Multi's arms, and over to an area further backstage. Coiley and Multi followed her, and went through a door. Inside was what looked like a workshop of some kind. There, they found several puppets either laying around, or hanging from hooks on the walls. Some of them on the floor had been damaged beyond repair, but others looked brand new. And, to top it all off, they were all female puppets, and they were all wearing white masks. Skittles began sniffing at them intently, and whimpered.

"Now _this_ is _really_ odd," Multi said. "How can some of these puppets be new if this place has been abandoned for two hundred years?"

"I also don't understand why there aren't any boy puppets around," Coiley said. "They're all girls. And _why_ are they wearing masks?"

"I'm getting a bad feeling about this, Coiley . . . ."

Multi and Coiley then glanced over at Skittles, who was busy investigating a group of five of these puppets. One looked like a redheaded Marie Antoinette, complete with full hoop skirt, fan, and a very elaborate pompadour. Another was a blond ballerina, in a lavender ensemble. The hair was done in a twist, and had a fancy pearl comb in it. There was a brunette puppet Skittles was interested in. This one wore a short green dress and butterfly wings on her back. Her hair was done up in a bun. This puppet reminded Skittles a bit of Tinkerbell from Disney's version of "Peter Pan" (with the exception of her hair color). The fourth puppet she investigated was another brunette, and wore a burgundy Renaissance style dress. The fifth and final puppet Skittles was sniffing at was another blond, with her hair in pigtails. She wore a yellow dress, white knee socks, black Mary Jane shoes, and a red cloak and hood. It was obvious this puppet was supposed to be Little Red Riding Hood.

Skittles continued sniffing at these five puppets, and suddenly began pawing at "Marie Antoinette," whimpering and whining. Then she started tugging on the puppet's skirt, until it began to fall. Multi quickly caught it before it could hit the floor.

"Careful, Skittles!" he scolded. "What are you trying to do? Give us away? We don't want to . . . . . AAAHHHH!"

Multi screamed and immediately dropped the puppet. She clattered to the ground, but there wasn't any damage done (except her hair got a little messed up).

"What?! What is it?! What's the matter?!" Coiley asked, startled at Multi's reaction.

"It . . . . it . . . . . it looks just like Shawn!" Multi shouted. Coiley then bent down, and picked "Marie" back up to get a better look at her, since her mask had fallen off when Skittles knocked her over.

"You're right, Multi," he said. "This life-size puppet is the spitting image of Shawn. I wonder . . . . ."

Coiley and Multi then immediately began removing the masks of the other four puppets Skittles was investigating. They discovered that the ballerina bore a striking resemblance to Danalleah, "Tinkerbell" looked like FG, the Renaissance lady looked like Windy, and "Red Riding Hood" was the spitting image of Phyllis.

"What do you make of it, Multi?" Coiley asked.

"I don't know," Multi said. "Whoever made these puppets did a great job on them. They look so much like the girls it's scary."

Skittles suddenly began whining, and she looked up at Multi. Her eyes were as big as saucers. That's when Multi realized something.

"I think Skittles is trying to tell us something," he said. "What is it, girl?"

Skittles whimpered, and walked over to the group of puppets. She walked over to the one that looked like Shawn, and licked it's face. Right away, Multi understood.

"Panicky Pinocchio!" he yelled. "The girls didn't model for the puppets! The girls _are_ the puppets!"

"What?!" Coiley shouted.

"Look at how Skittles is reacting. She's acting as if that Marie Antoinette puppet is alive."

"Maybe she thinks it really _is_ Shawn and not a puppet. After all, it looks just like her."

"That's just it. Skittles knows the difference between any of us and a fake. That really _is_ Shawn, isn't it, Skittles?"

Skittles barked and nodded her head.

"And if that's Shawn," Coiley said, "then are the other puppets Danalleah, FG, Windy, and Phyllis?"

Skittles nodded and barked again.

"Holy horrendous!" Coiley shouted, smacking his hand against his head. "This is just like one of those movies Fluey's always watching on the late-late-late-late-late show!"

"It's starting to make sense," Multi said. "Somebody sent the girls letters claiming they were from a modeling agency to lure them to this old theater. But why would someone turn them into puppets? I don't understand."

"One thing I _do_ understand, Multi. We've _got_ to find Fluey before the same thing happens to him!"

"Right, Coiley. And we have to figure a way to reverse the process so we can get the girls back to normal!"

Skittles began sniffing around. Then she began barking, and ran toward a stained glass window, and went into her pointer routine (_poing!_) Multi went over to the small window, and opened it. There he found what looked like a house in the backyard of the puppet theater.

"Sizzling stereos!" he shouted. "It looks like a secret yard!"

"And look!" Coiley shouted. "It's that weird spider puppet!"

Sure enough, the spider baby was skittering along the window sill, allowing Skittles and the two Impossibles to get a good close look at it. It stared at them for a few seconds, and then hopped off the sill and into that secret backyard.

"We have to follow it!" Multi shouted.

"How?" Coiley asked. "We can't get through this window. It's too small!"

"Maybe we can't, but Skittles can," Multi said, picking up his super pup. "Get to it, girl! Sic 'em!"

Skittles barked, saluted, revved up, and blasted through the window.

"Good idea, Multi, except for one thing," Coiley said.

"What's that?" Multi asked.

"How are _we_ going to get back there?"

"Oh," Multi said, sheepishly. "I guess I overlooked that. Not a problem, though. We'll just have to find the way in. Come on. I have a hunch those overgrown bushes Skittles was showing us earlier might be it."

"Rally ho!" Coiley and Multi shouted in unison, and they ran out of the workshop, and back outside to the front yard of the theater.

Elsewhere, Fluey was beginning to come to.

"Oooh boy . . . . ." he mumbled. "Man, does my head _ever_ ache!"

Fluey tried to reach up to rub the sore spot on the back of his head, but found he couldn't. He then noticed he was standing against a board or something, and strapped to it. He also noticed he wasn't wearing his stage outfit anymore. He now had on a white long-sleeved shirt, black pants that ended just below his knees, and black shoes with gold buckles on them. He looked a bit like a character out of the movie _1776_ or something like that.

"Sheesh!" he shouted. "This is a serious fashion disaster here! Where the heck am I, anyway?!"

Fluey looked around the room in order to figure out where he was. He noticed there was all kinds of weird machinery around the room, and the demented Gepetto he had encountered earlier was turning knobs on them and pushing buttons.

"Hey . . . . . what's going on here?!" he shouted.

"Awake, I see," the old man said, turning around.

"Who are you anyway?!" Fluey yelled.

"Just call me the Puppet Master," the old man said.

"Puppet Master? You've gotta be kidding me! The hotel owner said the Puppet Master died in a fire over two hundred years ago!"

"Never mind that. I've got big plans for you, my boy."

"What kind of plans?"

"You'll see."

Fluey was about to ask again, when who should come into the room but that Felicia girl. She looked at Fluey, and smiled sweetly.

"Is he ready, Papa?" she asked.

"He is," the Puppet Master said with a sigh. "But I'm not sure _I_ am. Felicia, my precious, please, won't you change your mind?"

"No, Papa!" Felicia shouted. "I want you to do it! It will make me happy. You want me to be happy, don't you, Papa?"

"More than anything in the world, precious. All right. If it will make you happy, I'll do it."

"Spoiled much?" Fluey muttered under his breath. Felicia heard him, and walked up to where he was strapped down.

"You just wait," she said, cupping his cheek in her hand. "I've got a big surprise for you."

Felicia giggled, and then stood back, away from all the machinery. The Puppet Master pulled a lever, and the machines began to activate. Fluey groaned and tried to pull himself out of the straps. A strange feeling was coming over him. He suddenly found that he couldn't move his legs.

"What's going on?!" he shouted, suddenly. "I . . . . . can't . . . . move! What's . . . . . happening?!"

"Just relax," the Puppet Master said. "The puppetization process will be over soon."

"Puppetization process?" Fluey asked. He had no clue what that meant, but he found out rather quickly when he looked down, trying to figure out what was wrong with his body. He discovered it right away. He was slowly turning from a human to a wooden puppet!

"Holy Mesopotamia!" he yelled. "Where's my transformer when I need it?!"

Try as he might, Fluey couldn't fight off the effects. He let out a scream as he turned into a wooden doll completely. His body grew limp, and his head slumped onto his chest. Felicia cackled, walked up to him, and unstrapped him. Fluey clattered to the ground, and Felicia picked him up.

"Oh, Papa! I'm so happy! Thank you so much!" she shouted. Then she turned to Fluey, and lifted his head so she was looking at his eyes. "And you, my handsome little doll, will be my puppet. Forever and ever!"


	7. Diary

Coiley and Multi ran around to the side of the house where they had found the large, overgrown bush, and began pushing through it, trying to find a passageway or a door, or _some_thing behind it that would lead them to the secret yard.

"What I wouldn't give for some hedge clippers," Coiley said. "We'll never get through this."

"I think I saw some back in the theater's dressing room," Multi said. "I'll go get them."

"I'll go with you," Coiley said. "After all, we should stick together."

"Right," Multi nodded.

The boys went back to the theater, and retrieved the hedge clippers Multi had seen in the dressing room. Once they brought them outside, Multi got to work clipping the overgrown bush. Finally, he got through it, and located a door.

"I guess that's our way in," Multi said, turning the knob. "And wouldn't you know it, it's locked!"

"I'll take care of it, Multi," Coiley said. He leaned against the door, and then spun around, drilling a large hole through it. Once he was inside, Multi ran through it.

"It's the secret backyard all right," Multi said. "And look at that! It looks like the door's been knocked off it's hinges!"

"Impossi-Pup strikes again," Coiley said, and he and Multi went inside the house to investigate. They found Skittles, in her superhero form, sitting on the floor in the living room.

"Lost that spider thing, huh, girl?" Coiley asked. Impossi-Pup whimpered.

"That's okay, girl, at least you tried," Multi said, petting the pup.

"You know, Multi, this place isn't as run down and messy as the theater was," Coiley said. "Take a look at the fire place."

"Someone's been here," Multi said, walking over. "And recently. But who?"

Suddenly, Coiley and Multi heard something in the next room, and went to investigate it. They didn't find much, except for a book case, a desk, and another door. Multi went over to the book case and looked.

"Some of the books are missing," he said. "I wonder why?"

"Locked," Coiley said, trying to open the case. Then he spotted a slot in the door. "What kind of a key would go in _there_?!"

"I don't know," Multi said.

As the boys were trying to figure this one out, they heard giggling coming from the other side of the door, and went to investigate it. But they didn't go inside. Instead, they opened the door a crack, and peeked in.

There, they saw a dark-haired teenage girl, waltzing around the room to the sound of a music box, playing "The Blue Danube." Multi and Coiley noticed her dancing partner was nothing more than a life-sized marionette.

"Who's that girl?" Coiley whispered.

"Beats me," Multi said. Impossi-Pup started whimpering quietly. "But it explains why there weren't any male puppets in with the girls. I bet this girl's hoarding them all for herself."

The music box waltz stopped, and the girl took her puppet, and propped him up on a couple of pegs on the wall.

"Well, I must go now," she said. "You stay here and . . . . . _hang_ out."

The girl laughed at her bad pun, and started walking toward the door. Multi, Coiley, and Impossi-Pup ducked out of sight just as she opened it, and left. Once she was gone, Multi, Coiley, and Impossi-Pup went into the room, and began looking around for clues. Immediately, Impossi-Pup ran to the puppet that girl had been playing with, and began barking hysterically. Multi and Coiley ran over to try to calm her down.

"Take it easy, girl!" Multi shouted. "You don't want to attract attention, do you?"

"Multi, look closely at this puppet," Coiley said, sounding nervous. Multi dared to look, and saw why Impossi-Pup was going berserk.

"Hollerin' hi-fi's!" he yelled. "It's Fluey! Help me get him down from here, Coiley."

The two Impossibles immediately lifted their comrade off the wall, and just stared at him.

"What do we do now?" Coiley asked. "How are we going to change him back?"

"We'll find a way," Multi said. "And we'll find a way to change the girls back to the way they were, too. Let's go!"

Multi picked up Fluey, and carried him out of the room. Coiley and Impossi-Pup followed. The minute they exited, they found that spider baby on the desk, tearing things out of a book.

"That thing is really starting to get on my nerves," Multi said.

"I wonder what it was doing?" Coiley said, and he walked over to the book on the desk. "Hey, Multi, look! It looks like an old diary! I think it might belong to the Puppet Master!"

"Maybe we'll finally get some answers," Multi said, and he and Coiley began reading.

_May 9, 1766_

_ It's been months now since my lovely theater has been destroyed. Felicia and I were lucky to escape. Thank goodness for the secret backyard. We have been living in secret since._

_ But for five months, my lovely little girl has been more and more distraught over her appearance. There is nothing that would please me more than to see her happy, but since her face was badly burned in the fire, I fear she will never be happy again._

_ June 20, 1766_

_ Felicia has discovered several books on magic and witchcraft. I'm not sure I approve of her reading such things, but she seems to enjoy it. She's discovered a way to bring her beauty back. She wants me to make a puppet that looks like her. Exactly like her. And it should be life-sized as well. I will make her the puppet, if it will make her happy._

_ July 29, 1766_

_ I finished the puppet today, and now my darling Felicia wants me to construct a machine that will transfer her soul into the puppet. I believe she is mad, but what else can I do? I want my precious darling to be happy. And I know this will make her happy._

_ September 25, 1766_

_ It worked! It was a success! My beautiful little girl has come back to me, just the way she was before the fire. I am so happy to see my precious happy again. When I built the machine, the puppet replica of Felicia became flesh and blood, while her former body became the puppet. I am so happy to see this, now we can be happy again._

_ December 7, 1766_

_ Something odd has happened. Felicia, though back to her beautiful self, as been playing in the kitchen, mixing up things on the stove, all the while going through those books on witchcraft. I believe she is concocting potions in there. And whatever she concocts, she drinks. And she makes me drink them as well. I dare not refuse to drink these potions. It would hurt my darling's feelings, and the last thing I want is to upset my precious Felicia._

_ February 8, 1767_

_ I discovered what that potion Felicia's been mixing is. An anti-aging potion. By drinking it, we have both supposedly gained immortality. Felicia is thrilled at the idea of being beautiful and sixteen forever._

_ August 19, 1771_

_ Oh horror of horrors! The worst thing in the world has happened since the fire! The soul transfer has worn off! My beautiful Felicia has turned into a wooden doll! I am grateful at least she is still living, but instead of human, she's nothing more than a living puppet. And she is furious! She wants me to collect every young and beautiful girl in the village, so I can use the machine I had built to transfer their souls into my puppet daughter. I don't agree with her methods, but I will do anything to see my baby is happy._

_ August 9, 1899_

_ I haven't written in so long. Things have been very, very busy lately. Felicia and I've spent the last one hundred and twenty-eight years perfecting the process. Each time we have lured young ladies to our laboratory and transferred their souls into my living puppet daughter, Felicia turns human, and the young ladies we have taken the souls of become puppets. Unfortunately, the process is not permanent, and Felicia returns to her wooden state after awhile. And she just gets so furious at that. I have seen her destroy the village girls we have turned into puppets. Sometimes, she dismantles them. Other times, she throws them on the fire, and watches them burn. And she laughs while they burn. Laughs! Once, she took an axe to one of the puppets, and chopped it into splinters. She took another five, and threw them off the side of the cliff, one by one, and watched as they smashed against the jagged rocks, all the while taking great pleasure in it._

_ April 25, 1965_

_ I do wish Felicia would stop making me drink that potion. I can barely live with myself with what I have done. I truly despise myself for being responsible for the disappearances of these girls all around the world. I only go on the way I do because it's the love I have for my precious. I do so want her to be happy. I must find a way to perfect the process. Perhaps, if I do, Felicia will be happy, and allow me to die in peace. One can only hope._

"That's the last entry in the book," Coiley said.

"This whole thing is creeping me out big time, Coiley," Multi said. Impossi-Pup began whimpering. "But at least now we know what happened to Fluey and the girls. The only problem is figuring out how in the world we're going to change them back!"

"Maybe if we find that machine," Coiley suggested, "we can figure out how to put it in reverse."

"We'd have to figure out where it is first," Multi said. Impossi-Pup began barking, and she began pawing at the book case, as if she were trying to dig a hole in it or something.

"I think Skittles is onto something," Multi said. "I think maybe those missing volumes in the book case might be a clue."

"Look at these, Multi," Coiley said, picking up a pile of cards from the back of the Puppet Master's diary.

"Punch cards," Multi said. "And there's a machine to use them in. That's it! That slot in the door of the book case!"

"That must be for these cards," Coiley said. "If we punch the correct code into one of these cards, and put the card into that slot, something might open up. But how do we find the code?"

"The missing books!" Multi shouted. "The missing volumes _must_ be the code! Put the card into the machine and punch two, six, eleven, fifteen, and eighteen!"

"Roger, Multi!" Coiley shouted. He put one of the cards in the machine, pushed the numbers Multi had indicated, and pulled the lever on the side of the machine. The card came out, with holes punched in the numbered spaces. Then he walked over to the book case, and stuck the card in the slot. A door opened in the book case, revealing a flight of stairs leading downward.

"A secret door," Coiley said. "Looks creepy down there."

"I know," Multi said. "But we're going to have to go down there if we want to get Fluey and the girls back to normal. Let's go."


	8. Welcome to the Machine

Multi, Coiley, and Impossi-Pup went down the flight of stairs and found themselves in what looked like the sewer system. They heard some noises down one of the corridors and saw a familiar, spider-esque shadow.

"I think that spider thing's spying on us," Coiley said,

"I think you're right," Multi replied. "Come on, follow me."

Multi quietly snuck past the corridor and went down another one. Coiley and Impossi-Pup followed. Inside the corridor, they found several more puppets, as well as a strange looking contraption.

"What is this thing?" Coiley asked, bouncing over. Multi and Impossi-Pup followed, and Impossi-Pup began sniffing at it.

"I think it's an elevator of sorts," Multi said, looking closely at the contraption. "Let's activate it and see where it leads."

The group climbed aboard, and Coiley pulled a lever. A glass tube that had small, black balls inside of it tilted, and the balls fell from the tube and into a cup. The cup lowered due to the weight of the balls, and released one of the gears, allowing it to turn. Once the gear was released, and turning, the elevator began moving.

"Going up!" Coiley shouted.

The trio rode the elevator up until it stopped, right backstage of the puppet theater.

"A secret underground passageway to the theater," Multi said. "That must be how the Puppet Master and his daughter escaped that fire."

"And I'll bet you anything that girl we saw at the house was the Puppet Master's daughter," Coiley said. "She's the one who turned the girls and Fluey into puppets."

"But the question is how to change them back," Multi said. "We've got to find that laboratory."

"My guess it was through that other corridor. Let's see if we can get this elevator back down."

Before Multi and Coiley could figure out how to put the elevator in reverse, Impossi-Pup began barking, and she went into her pointer bit (_poing!_), and indicated the balcony in the theater.

"I think Impossi-Pup senses something," Multi said. "What is it, girl? The spider puppet again?"

"No . . . . there's someone in the balcony, Multi!" Coiley shouted.

In the dim light, the boys made out the figure of a teenage girl. It had to be Felicia. She saw the two boys standing there, and glared at them, when she saw they had _her_ puppet in their possession.

"Papa!" she screamed. "They've stolen my handsome puppet! Get them!"

"We'd better get out of here, Multi!" Coiley shouted.

"I'm with you, Coiley!" Multi shouted, and they were about to run when they were both suddenly hit in the back of the head with something heavy, and they lost consciousness.

The boys woke up some time later, and found themselves in a cell of some kind.

"What happened?" Multi asked, rubbing the back of his head.

"Where are we?" Coiley asked. "Hey, our powers have been deactivated!"

"Someone must have taken our transformers while we were unconscious and used them to deactivate our powers so we wouldn't escape."

"But what happened to Skittles and Fluey?"

Multi didn't have an answer to that one. Before he could say anything, a door opened, and Felicia walked into the room, carrying Fluey, slung over her shoulder. She walked up to the cell and glared at the two Impossibles.

"You think you're pretty smart, don't you?" she said. "You may have found out what's been going on, but you'll never be able to tell anyone about it!"

"What are you going to do to us?" Coiley asked.

"The same thing we've done to your friend," Felicia said. "And, once we've puppetized the two of you, we're going to throw you both into the boiler! Let's start with you, Red!"

Felicia opened the cell door and grabbed Multi's arm. Coiley tried to make a break for it, but Felicia slammed the cell door closed and locked it before he could get out. Multi tried to wrench himself away from this girl, but Felicia had a vice-like grip. And without his powers, he wouldn't be able to do anything, either. Coiley was really up a creek without a paddle. He didn't know what to do. As he was thinking about his options, he heard a familiar barking coming from down a corridor.

"Skittles!" he shouted, as he saw Multi's little brown and white puppy coming down the hallway. She backed up a little, revved up, and slammed directly into the cell door, knocking it off it's hinges. Of course, she also slammed directly into Coiley, which knocked him off his feet, and she began barraging him with puppy kisses.

"Easy, girl, easy!" Coiley shouted. "Come on. We've got to find that girl before she can puppetize Multi!"

Skittles barked, and let Coiley up. Then she started sniffing around, trying to pick up Multi's scent. She managed to pick it up, and she led Coiley through another door that, luckily, led to the laboratory. They snuck in quietly so the Puppet Master wouldn't hear them. Multi was strapped to the contraption, the Puppet Master was preoccupied with his machine, and Felicia wasn't around. That was a lucky break.

"How do we get Multi off of that thing?" he asked. Then he saw a small piano of sorts hooked up to the machine, directly to where Multi was strapped down.

"That's it!" Coiley said. "The sheet music we found in the piano at the hotel. Those notes might just unlock Multi from the machine!"

Coiley quickly snuck over to the small piano, took out the sheet music the boys had found, and played the little tune written on it. Coiley's hunch was right. As soon as he finished playing that little tune, the straps unlocked, and Multi jumped down off the machine.

"We'd better hide!" Multi shouted, and he, Coiley, and Skittles ducked out of site. The Puppet Master turned toward the platform, only to find his captive gone.

"What the . . . . ." he said. "What's going on here?!"

The Puppet Master then walked over to where Multi had been, and investigated. He didn't realize he had left the machine running, and it activated, blasting the Puppet Master, since he was standing in the area where Multi had been for the puppetization process.

"Yaaaahhhhhhh!" the Puppet Master screamed.

"I don't think I can look!" Multi shouted.

"Me neither!" Coiley shouted. Skittles began whimpering, and she covered her eyes with her paws.

The process was complete in a matter of seconds. Since the Puppet Master hadn't been strapped to the backboard, he immediately clattered to the ground, and broke apart, due to the joints in the puppet being so old.

"That takes care of him, I guess," Multi said.

"I don't think he was really a bad guy," Coiley replied. "I mean, he seemed pretty remorseful about his actions when we read that diary of his. But how do we reverse the process?"

"You don't!" a feminine voice called out. Multi and Coiley turned around and saw Felicia standing there, holding Fluey under one arm, and a hatchet in her opposite hand.

"Hollerin' hi-fi's!" Multi shouted.

"When Papa built the machine, I made sure he didn't put in a way to reverse the puppetization process," Felicia said, putting Fluey down in the corner for the moment. "Look at what you've done! You killed my Papa! And so I'm going to kill you!"

"Yipe!" Skittles yipped and she ran off. Multi and Coiley jumped away in opposite directions just as Felicia lunged at them. Her hatchet ended up coming in direct contact with the heart of the machine.

"No! No, this _can't_ be happening!" Felicia screamed.

Sparks were flying everywhere as the machine's wiring crackled and sizzled. Multi, Coiley, and Skittles just stood there watching. Felicia's hand suddenly changed to wood, and she screamed.

"I get it now!" Coiley shouted. "We've got to destroy the entire machine to reverse the puppetization process!"

"Not we, Coiley," Multi said, picking up his pup. "Skittles. She's the only one who can do it. If we tried, this girl is likely to catch us in the act."

"Right, and she'll never catch up to Impossi-Pup!"

Skittles barked three times, and back flipped, going into her super-pup identity. Then she revved up, and charged the machine. Felicia didn't know what the heck was happening. All she could make out was a pale blue streak of of lightning zooming around the machinery, punching large holes in it. With each piece of the machine that was destroyed, another part of Felicia's body turned to wood.

"It's working!" Coiley shouted, glancing over at Fluey, who was also going through a metamorphosis of sorts. He was changing back into a human.

"Atta girl, Impossi-Pup!" Multi cheered as his super puppy was zooming around the remaining machinery, destroying it completely. By this time, Felicia had run off, but the boys hadn't noticed. They ran over to Fluey, who was back to his old self once again, but feeling extremely disoriented.

"Oh brother, what a headache!" he shouted. "What the heck hit me, anyway?"

"Never mind that now," Multi said, pulling his dark-haired team mate to his feet. "We've got to get back upstairs to the theater, quick!"

The Impossibles and Impossi-Pup ran out of the laboratory, down the corridors, up the secret staircase, out of the secret backyard, and back into the front of the theater, and to the stage. They found the girls where they left them, and they were all reverted back to humans.

"What happened?" Shawn asked. "And who messed with my hair?!"

"What the heck are we wearing?" Phyllis asked.

"Oooh, do I ever have a headache!" Windy moaned.

"Are you girls all right?" Multi asked, as he and the others ran over.

"Yeah, I think so," FG said. "What happened anyway?"

"It's kind of a long story," Coiley said. "We'll fill you in on the way back to Megatropolis."

Impossi-Pup began barking hysterically, indicating the elevator the boys had found earlier. The boys boarded it, followed by Impossi-Pup, Shawn, FG, Danalleah, Phyllis, and Windy, and rode it down to the underground dungeon. Impossi-Pup did her pointer thing down the hallway, and there was that spider baby.

"_Eeeeeuuuuwwwww!_" Windy shouted, cringing. "What _is_ that dis_gust_ing thing?!"

"After it!" Multi shouted, and the group chased after the spider baby puppet until they reached the laboratory and found a secret doorway in the floor, and the spider baby went down a flight of stairs.

"This just keeps getting weirder and weirder," Fluey said, as the group followed the puppet down the stairs.

Once the group reached the stairs, they saw a submarine, and the spider baby climbed aboard it, and crawled into Felicia's waiting hand. Felicia was now a living puppet, like Pinocchio.

"You've taken away everything!" she shouted, cradling her spider baby gently. "You killed my papa! I'll see to it that you pay dearly for this! Mark my words, I'll be back!"

That said, the door to the sub closed, and started to submerge, going through what looked like a cave entrance (or maybe exit in this regard. The boys wouldn't be able to follow her without their powers, and FG's transformer earrings were missing.

"We'd better find our transformers and get after her!" Fluey shouted.

"No way, Fluey," Coiley said. "By the time we find them, she'll be long gone."

"Let's go, gang," Multi said. "We've got to find those transformers anyway."

"Yeah, I'll call Big D so he can put out an ABP on that Felicia chick," Fluey said. "Though I just _know_ he's gonna think this is something out of the late-late-late-late-late show."

While Fluey called Big D on his wrist communicator and filled him in, the others went looking for the boys' transformer, and FG's earrings. Thankfully, they found them in a secret compartment in the wall of Felicia's bedroom. Then they left the theater and climbed aboard the Impossi-Mobile, converted to Impossi-Jet, and took off. The Austrian authorities were dispatched to the theater and they were in charge of making sure the rest of the girls lured to the theater were safely returned to where they had come from.

"Okay, you guys," Phyllis said. "You promised to fill us in, so let's have it."

"Okay, but you girls aren't going to believe it!" Multi shouted, and started explaining everything.

When Impossi-Pup destroyed the machine, all the souls it had collected were released, returning her to her state as a puppet, when she had her own soul transferred into the puppet replica. The only reason she was still living was because of the anti-aging potion she was taking when her puppet-self was flesh and blood. Once a person was puppetized, they were puppetized forever. There was no way to reverse the process, and if a puppetized person had the misfortune to be destroyed, he or she was killed, and their spirit trapped within the machine. Once the machine had been destroyed, all the souls of the victims who had died at the hands of that deranged puppet girl were now free.

"But what about that spider thing?" Fluey asked.

"I have a feeling that was Felicia's pet," Coiley said. "We saw blueprints for it when we found the Puppet Master's diary. I think it was ripping it apart so we wouldn't find it."

"And it was obviously spying on us," Multi said.

"Do you really think she could come back?" Danalleah asked.

"Who knows?" Fluey said, shrugging. "I hope not, but you just don't know these things. Revenge is a strong motivator. I guess we'll just have to wait and see."

"In the meantime, let's just head back home," Coiley said. "This case is closed for now."

The others agreed, and relaxed a little, finally glad to be heading home.

The End

_

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Okay, I left this pretty open for a sequel didn't I? Well, there is a reason for that. I'm sorry to spoil the computer game, but it ended on a cliffhanger, and I'm not sure if there's going to be a sequel to the game or not. If there IS a sequel to the game, then they'll probably be a sequel to this story._


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